Fort of São João do Arade

The Fort of São João do Arade (Portuguese: Forte de São João do Arade), sometimes referred to as the Castle of Arade, is a medieval fortification situated in the civil parish of Ferragudo in the Portuguese Algarve municipality of Lagoa.

The first fortification on the site consisted of a watch tower erected in the reign of King John II of Portugal. Later, following the settlement of Ferragudo (around 1520), it is believed that the castle was encircled by a defensive wall (built on the rudimentary walls of the older walls): giving rise to its original name Castle of Arade.

The origins of the Fort of Arade (or Ferragudo, as it is also known) date back to the Philippine Dynasty, and the need by the Habsburg rulers to defend the coast of the peninsula from attacks by pirates and privateers in service to the Crowns of northern Europe. Yet, even at the beginning decades of the 17th century, no fortress was constructed owing to the indecision on whether to locate the fortification on the left or right margin (location of Vila Nova de Portimão).

Engineer Alexandre Massai defended a new construction in Portimão, while the left margin proposal (in Ferragudo) was defended by the municipality of Silves. According to a report by Alexandre Massai, the battlements already existed in 1621, since he refers to “um sítio cercado chamado Ferragudo” (“a walled site called Ferragudo”).

The Portuguese Restoration War, once again, justified the construction of a new fortress. It was in 1640 that the order to construct a fortification came down from King John IV; the fortress was built to substitute the Castle of Ferragudo (Portuguese: Castelo de Ferragudo) which had lost its effectiveness. This bulwark was erected downstream on a rocky platform, but the effects of erosion and Atlantic storms (especially a violent storm in 1669) caused severe damage to the original bulwark.

Within four years (2 May 1644), the first captain was assigned to the fort: Francisco da Costa Barros. The strategic location of this castle, from the beginning, made the fortress more than just a military structure. The fort controlled a privileged place at the mouth of the River Arade, with the capacity to strike as far as the margins of Portimão.

Text adapted from “Fort of São João do Arade” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort of São João do Arade ranks #4,729 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #66 of the 205 mapped in Portugal. Founded 1520, it is older than 44% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,558 times in the last 60 days, more than 61% of the atlas. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Portugal compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗